My Fat-to-Fit Journey

photo circa 2015

Over the past 5 years I have been often asked how I lost all "my" (like it was something I was holding on to) weight, which is then followed by 'how I manage to stay in shape' even after "marriage". Today seems to be the day when I am exceptionally motivated to share my story like they say and hence the reminiscing ...For couple of years I lived and worked in London. With zero social life and the depressing weather, to my surprise I had shed the first 4-5 kgs by sheer laziness to cook. My routine composed of going to bed early and waking up and heading to work straight. However once it dawned upon me that God was finally helping me, I too decided to contribute my share. I joined a gym for the n'th time. In a twisted way my sad-lonely life was a blessing in disguise as to kill time and delay getting home I decided to walk to and from work (Total of 6-7 kms in a day). Before I knew I fell in love with walking!
So here I was walking all over London to run errands, go to work, shopping, everything!!! But I still had these weekends where I had more time to kill ... so I joined Pilates (Love It)! Within 6 months of making all these life-altering decisions I had now lost about 10kgs without any real dieting! And this was, now I realize, actually the easy part!

Homesickness took me back to Delhi, for good! I didn't waste any time and joined a gym the VERY next day I landed. But it was proving really difficult to lose the last couple of inches I was desperate of get rid of. I should also mention at this point I was addicted to working-out and couldn't live without breaking-into-a-sweat every single day! And this time I went all out. Did various activities throughout the week including Salsa, Spinning, Yoga, Step Classes, etc. I lost inches but NO weight! But I didn't give up. I made further more changes to adapt my lifestyle to being healthy with lots of fruits, vegetables, yogurt and less sugar & carbs (I am a Vegetarian). One year in India, still no weight-loss but got a LOT leaner and fitter body. But even now I was obsessing with weight. I wanted to see it on the scale which was not happening. So I attempted my luck with Personal Training. This too only helped me get leaner but no significant weight loss.

After one year and six months of living in Delhi I managed to stay on the same weight and loose a few inches. Then I moved to U.S. after marriage and workout took a back seat for the next six months. Come New Year and I felt disgusted, depressed and lethargic about my whole health condition so I decided to get back to my gym (I did join the gym as soon I landed in U.S. but just didn't manage to enter it) !!! Oh-well, here I stepped on the weighing scale after 6 months of no workout and I have LOST another 5kgs! MAGIC??? - No! Well, I was doing a A LOT of house work which helped in the absence of "real" exercise - cleaning, dishes, laundry, and also a lot of walking (No Driving License, you see !!!)

I was back with a BANG! I joined the gym, hired a personal trainer, again started eating 5 healthy meals in a day and I had lost another few kgs and a HUGE fat percentage! Before I realized the whole year passed-by and I didn't gain a single inch or ounce (since 5 years!) Now I just merely continue to do the same and eat smartly! Also have gone back to "my Pilates" (Like I OWN it :P)! It's amazing but more about that later.

Hi beta!CONGRATES!Its not possible to express how proud i feel when i read the way u express.Keep it up.Though v keep sharing all this wen v talk but still i throughly njoyed reading it.Infact now m planning to join the gym!!!Papa is highly impressed.He wants you to continue writting your views with society on various subjects.

Hi Tanvi, all I can say is 'wow'. I read all your posts and they are fantastic! Very well written and so easy to keep on reading on and on... I agree with Tanuj, Its as addictive as Facebook! Look forward to reading the next one... Alisha xxx

Tanvi, I am Maha impressed with your hard work. Lots of people lose weight. Only five percent of the people manage to keep off their lost weight after 2 years. The rest of the poeple gain the weight back. You have mastered the latter.

Hi Tanvi..happened to stuble upon your blog accidently..and I guess its for the right reason....I've been wating to shed 5kgs since past 6 months...my newly found baking addiction has taken a toll on my weight..:(...I needed a right motivation..and thanks to your blog..at this moment..I feel all geared up to loose weight by exercising..keep up with your great blog..

It's strange that I had the same experience when I moved to London! Well, at first. When I went there I weighed 54 kgs, which I was quite happy with. But all of my walking and my laziness to cook meals made me drop drastically to 50 kgs (which was absolutely horrible. I looked like a skeleton and it was a terribly unattractive look!) After a couple of years of living there, though, I had more university work to do which resulted in long hours in front of the computer, sitting on the couch, which is when I accumulated all the extra weight! I sometimes become obsessed with checking my weight on the scale but right now I am avoiding scales and trying to go by how I look and feel :)

Why? Because I am living that lazy life and I need a kick in the butt. I am a workout/walk freak but running hasn't been happening. I tried pilates and loved it! One hell of a calming exercise....I want to go back to kick boxing :| Like right now...

And many many more blog anniversaries your way...wishing you lot more success....